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Robert Mitchum stars as a small-town mechanic attempting to hide out from his sordid past as a private eye. Director Jacques Tourneur was a master of shadows and Out of the Past is cloaked in them. Despite this darkness, there is nowhere for Mitchum's Jeff Bailey to hide from Whit Sterling, a local gangster portrayed by a young Kirk Douglas, who wants his girlfriend Kathie found and returned to him. Jane Greer as Kathie portrays a femme fatale who is forever trying to stay one step ahead of the men who have fallen for her. The cross-border script moves between small town America, the sun of Acapulco, and the decadence of the big coastal cities. Tourneur masterfully weaves all these threads together to craft the film that Roger Ebert would describe as "one of the greatest of all film noirs".